


The Last Step In The Plan

by Wheudonym



Category: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Study, Coda, Episode 75, Episode Tag, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hopeful Ending, M/M, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-23
Updated: 2018-09-23
Packaged: 2019-07-15 22:12:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16072394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wheudonym/pseuds/Wheudonym
Summary: There had always been a plan. Honestly, he didn’t always like his own plans, or even follow them, but there was usually a plan.The first plan was moving to King Falls.It wasn’t exactly a plan. A plan typically had multiple steps and at least one thought through idea. ‘Move to King Falls and Find Jack’ wasn’t exactly a CIA level operation, but it was what Sammy had going for him.





	The Last Step In The Plan

 

There had always been a plan. Honestly, he didn’t always like his own plans, or even follow them, but there was usually a plan.

The first plan was moving to King Falls.

It wasn’t exactly a plan. A plan typically had multiple steps and at least one thought through idea. ‘Move to King Falls and Find Jack’ wasn’t exactly a CIA level operation, but it was what Sammy had going for him. 

When Jack disappeared… When Sammy’s original plan (1. Live in the big city, 2. Succeed in a radio career, and 3. Have Jack in sickness and health) went to Hell, he didn’t have much of a backup. The only thing he had close to a Plan B was a bottle of whiskey and staring at the notebook Jack had left still open on the kitchen table. A notebook with the words “King Falls” scribbled on every page in frantic, desperate writing that, less than a week had driven Sammy berserk with worry and frustration, but now only left a hollow ache in his chest.

The second plan was leaving King Falls.

He emailed Merv.

He gave the landlady his notice.

He told Ben. And, Jesus, how that had been the hardest part of his plan because Ben was stubborn and too loving for his own good. But Ben wasn’t going to be able to stop this plan. Not when it had been in place for so long. Maybe even before his plan to move to King Falls.

This plan may have been triggered by Lily Wright’s arrival in town, but this had been Sammy’s plan for a long time. It had been months since he so much as thought about finding Jack, let alone actively looked for him. There wasn’t any hope left to give Sammy the drive for it. He was gone. Jack wasn’t here anymore. He was with Debbie, wherever the Hell that was. 

Sammy told everyone the plan was to leave King Falls. He never said where. Everyone assumed it was back ‘home’ to the big city. He let them assume. That was part of the plan. If they thought he was leaving to the big city, no one would think to look for him. No one would know he was lost.

The real plan? The plan he hadn’t told a anyone, not even to himself? He was going to hike to the Devil’s Doorstep and walk straight into The Void, where he knew Jack would be waiting for him.

He packed up his apartment. There was only a half a dozen boxes and a single suitcase, but nonetheless he ordered a moving company to come up to King Falls to pick his things up. He left his key under the doormat and left instructions to drop the things off at an address.  Instead of giving them a fake address in the big city, he wrote down a Good Will that was a couple towns over. They would figure it out eventually. 

He waited until the first of May. Because he had made a promise to himself, another year, and that year started on the evening of May 1st, because that’s when he first stepped foot into this town, and that’s when he was going to leave. 

Hiking to the Devil’s Doorstep wasn’t hard. No, the hard part so he had been told, was trying to get away from that place. All he had to do was walk into the woods. He didn’t take a map. He didn’t look past the dim light of his flashlight. He just walked. And walked. Until he started to hear the sounds of the woods fade away. The usual calm reassurance of bats chirping overhead, owls screeching in the distance, and the rustle of animals scurrying to their dens all faded away. There wasn’t any noise expect the unsettling, almost static-like whispers. He couldn’t understand them. Sometimes a word would rush through his mind but before he knew what it meant, it too faded away. Without knowing their meaning though he knew they were enticing him forward, and unlike every other hiker to come this way, he followed willingly. He didn’t turn back or try and find his way out. He was a lamb shepherded by the whispers in the night.

Eventually the woods parted. The dirt turned to gravel and then to rock. He shone the flashlight up, and saw what looked like a structure of boulders, as tall as a building. It reminded him of the Devils Postpile. Jack had taken him there once, on a trip to California. It was far more disturbing to see now, in the dark of night with a sliver of moon illuminating the jagged volcanic earth.

He climbed forward, forgoing his flashlight completely when the rocks became too hard to climb one-handed.

_ “Sammy” _

Silence followed the barely-there whisper.

It was just his name, but it was everything. There was so much in that single whispers. It didn’t sound like the other voices that had been swirling around the Doorstep. It sounded like Debbie’s voice had, real and human. But it also sounded sad and scolding, all in one little word. It filled Sammy up and then left him parched for more of that voice. The voice he hadn’t heard in over three years.

“Jack!”

Sammy scrambled forward, scraping his knees on the Doorstep, clawing at the rock beneath him. Once he stumbled to the edge of the cliff, finding himself in front of a large flat platform that appeared to lead to a huge block of solid volcanic rock. It was unsettlingly rectangular, and much larger than all the other jagged boulders next to it. The door itself. Without thinking, without hesitation, Sammy ran toward it. But he was thrown back almost immediately. 

“No,” He whispered to himself. He could see now that the rock in front of him wasn’t rock at all, but a large doorway into black nothingness. That was his way out. That was the entrance and exit all in one, and he couldn’t seem to cross its threshold. He flung himself at it again and again, but was thrown back every time, skidding painfully on the rough platform. He was screaming. He was crying, and his throat was scratching on every word, but he didn’t stop running toward the empty space in front of him. He needed Jack to hear him.  He needed to hear Jack to say his name. Just one more time. 

“Goddamnit!” Sammy shouted, “Fuck, just take me already! Take me you useless fucking piece of shit! Goddamnit!”

He still wasn’t sure what happened. One moment he was running forward into the void, the next second he was flying backward and landing hard on the jagged rocks below. He faded in and out for a moment.

Sometime after, Walt arrived. Sammy blinked up through the haze and saw his face.

“Rise, Sammy. We don’t have much time,” Walt’s tone brook no arguments.

Sammy rose to his feet, protesting weakly, “I can’t. Walt, leave me. Please.”

“You cannot go in there, Sammy Stevens. It will not take you,” Walt took Sammy’s arm and hauled him to his feet. “But you have brought forth the shadows. Come now, we don’t have time.”

“Walt, I-”

Sammy didn’t have time to finish his thought. He was being dragged off and then he was handed a light and told to shine it into the shadows. Somehow the simple command had cleared his mind. Walt was in danger, not just Sammy. That hadn’t been part of the plan. Sammy had just meant to disappear and leaving nothing behind. But now Walt was here, and the shadows were around them. Sammy had caused this.

“It should have taken me. It’s taken so many- so many unwilling people- and yet it wouldn’t take me.”

“Keep walking,” Walt pushed him forward, and if Sammy’s mind hadn’t been so clouded, he would have seen the flicker of concern on Walt’s stoick face.

They made it to Sammy’s car. He prayed Walt would be alright. 

Then the rainbow lights appeared.

And that had not been how he had planned to leave. He had wanted to go through The Devil’s Doorstep. The Void was where Jack was. That wasn’t the plan at all.

And with that, Sammy’s mind cleared completely. He didn’t want to leave. He didn’t want Ben to be sad over him. He didn’t want any of the folks of King Falls to be sad, just because of him. But more importantly, he didn’t want to miss out on them. He wanted to stick around. To be with the friends he had made. To see how this hell played out. 

But the rainbow lights were hovering above. And Sammy knew how that had gone before.

A long time ago, Sammy had planned to die. But in those moments, his plan had changed. From his car, he called Ben. That had not been the original plan at all. He hadn’t wanted to say goodbye. He had wanted to leave with the hope that Ben would forget about him and move on with his life. Now he said his goodbye. Because goodbyes were for people who wanted to stay.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope that was a little uplifting at the end (and reflective of Sammy's character). If you're feeling like how Sammy had been feeling, please talk to someone. If you haven't already, give the Beyond The Falls (July 1st Excerpt) a listen.


End file.
